Gay-Rights Advocates Prepare for the Sochi Olympics

Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Sochi this past weekend to inspect and oversee preparations for the Winter Olympic Games, which are now just a month away. He has made no secret of his plan to use the Games as a showcase for modern Russia. International human-rights and L.G.B.T. activists, however, are focussed on raising awareness of Russia’s new anti-gay law—which makes it a crime to discuss L.G.B.T. issues in front of minors—and the bigger human-rights violations that it seems to encourage.

The Academy Award-winning producer and gay-rights advocate Bruce Cohen recently attended a screening in St. Petersburg, at the Side by Side L.G.B.T. International Film Festival, of his 2008 film “Milk,” which is about the life of San Francisco city supervisor and gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk.

“The people are smart and sophisticated. And charming and funny. And they dress well, and the music’s good, and the food is good, and the vodka’s good, and the hotels are beautiful, and the wireless is perfect,” Cohen observed about Russia. “It presents the appearance of being a free, democratic society. But, boy oh boy, it’s not. It’s all a very calculated and clever appearance that the government has worked hard to present. “

Cohen was accompanied at the St. Petersburg screening by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for the film’s screenplay, and Gus Van Sant, its director, who told me that Russia was “dumbfounding, hard to figure out,” and that people seemed forced into “leading double lives.” (All three men are gay.)

Black was clear about the political nature of his visit to Russia. The new anti-gay law was “put in place to create fear and silence”—which he called “the greatest weapons against any civil-rights movement”—and as such, “it’s a law that has to be confronted.” He added, “I think it was important that we did break it.” When the “Milk” screening in St. Petersburg had to be evacuated after a bomb threat, “it became very real, very fast,” Black said. “I’ll be honest, I was afraid. But that’s the design of these laws.”

“I wondered who would stay,” Black continued, “but [after about ninety minutes] everyone came back into the theatre; there were more people, not less. People didn’t go home. I think people called their friends and said, ‘You have to come.’ That was what was inspiring to me, the strength of the Russian people in the face of this adversity.”

Activists hope that Olympic athletes and spectators will protest the law and the larger mistreatment of gays in Russia during the Games, but it’s a tricky situation. While President Putin has said that visitors to the Olympics will not be harassed or mistreated because of their sexual orientation, he has also said that they must obey Russian laws, meaning that visitors will not be allowed to speak about L.G.B.T. rights in public forums where minors could see or hear them—including, for example, on television.

In addition, the International Olympic Committee is telling athletes that they are prohibited from expressing political opinions while participating in the Games. (The Olympic Charter provides that the Games are to be nonpolitical.)

Some groups, like Athlete Ally and All Out, are asking participants instead to voice their support for the sixth principle of the charter, which prohibits discrimination of any kind in the Olympics, as a form of protest that does not expressly mention gay rights. The thinking behind this strategy is that the I.O.C. would be hard-pressed to punish an athlete for advocating one of the organization’s own principles. Already, the Australian bobsled teams have announced partnerships with the Principle 6 campaign.

Black and Cohen, who previously were part of a small group of Hollywood-based activists who successfully challenged California’s Proposition 8, helped found a new organization called Uprising of Love. It has gained the support of many figures in the entertainment industry (the singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge is another founder), who hope to raise awareness of the L.G.B.T.-rights issues in Russia by writing songs, producing videos, and otherwise using their talents and connections to encourage others to become involved.

While the “Milk” team was in Russia, Cohen said, they received support from the U.S. State Department and consulate officials, who told them that it was O.K. to speak out against the Russian law, as President Obama has done—so long as there were no minors in the room. If there was someone under eighteen, the advice was to “leave immediately.” They learned from Russian activists that, very often, gay-rights opponents plant minors at events or meetings and then have the police come and break them up. Activists are now extremely careful about checking everyone’s I.D. “It goes to the medieval and draconian notion that we recruit your children and we molest them,” said Cohen.

Russian activists believe that anti-gay sentiment has increased substantially since the passage of the law, accompanied by more bullying, harassment, and violence. Before the law, activists told Cohen, gays in Russia, or at least in the big cities, were pretty much left alone. “Now,” he said, “they fear for their lives.”

Cohen and Van Sant both believe that the government is being very careful to make sure that there are no anti-gay protests or incidents that would damage the country’s reputation leading up to, or during, the Sochi Olympics. The fear is that as soon as the athletes and spectators return to their countries, anti-gay violence will spike. One of the main goals of Uprising of Love is to keep international attention focussed on Russia after the Games have ended.

All three men hope that athletes and spectators will make pro-L.G.B.T. statements during the Games. “Fearlessly speak the truth,” Black urged. Without naming individuals, Cohen said that some in Hollywood have been in discussions with NBC Universal, which will televise the Games in the U.S., and with many of the Olympic sponsors, about the issues surrounding Sochi. NBC, in particular, is under a lot of pressure. “They do not want the L.G.B.T. community of the world displeased with them,” Cohen said, adding that NBC does appear to be working to cover the Games in a responsible way. Only time will tell if they succeed.

The larger issues for gays in Russia go “right back to Harvey Milk,” Cohen said. “It’s the message about the importance of coming out. One person telling one other person that they’re gay can change the world. That’s what has to happen in Russia, as scary as it is and as dangerous as it is—and in some cases, if you’re under eighteen, as illegal as it is. People have to find a way to tell the world who we are. That way, change will come eventually.”

“These are people who deserve our friendship, our kindness, and absolutely need our support,” Black said. “We want to help make sure that the world keeps an eye on Russia. If someone is harmed, put in jail, fined, [we] will do our best to support them and help protect them.”

Richard Socarides is an attorney and longtime gay-rights advocate. He served in the White House during the Clinton Administration and has also been a political strategist. He now oversees public affairs at GLG. Opinions expressed here are only his own. Follow him on Twitter @Socarides.

Richard Socarides is an attorney and longtime gay-rights advocate. He served in the White House during the Clinton Administration and has also been a political strategist. He now oversees public affairs at GLG. Opinions expressed here are only his own.